MINNEAPOLIS — The Brooklyn Nets closed out 2019 with a 122-115 overtime loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves at Target Center.
Brooklyn’s Taurean Prince tied the game at 103 and forced overtime with his jumper in the lane with 29 seconds remaining.
But after the Nets and Wolves traded baskets in the opening minutes of overtime, 3-pointers from Robert Covington and Kelan Martin put Minnesota up 113-109, and former Net Shabazz Napier followed with a jumper for a six-point Timberwolves lead with 1:39 to go.
Joe Harris finished a drive, Jarrett Culver answered with a jumper for Minnesota, and Spencer Dinwiddie’s baseline drive for a dunk cut the Minnesota lead to 117-113 with a minute remaining. But Napier responded again, and his 3-pointer left the Nets down 120-113 with 42.4 seconds to go.
Dinwiddie led Brooklyn with 36 points, plus eight assists and five rebounds. Harris had 19 points with three 3-pointers and seven rebounds.
Wilson Chandler and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot each had three 3-pointers off the bench, with Chandler finishing with 13 points and Luwawu-Cabarrot with 11.
Jordan had 13 rebounds and Prince had 13.
The Nets took a 50-49 lead into halftime, limiting the Wolves to 34 percent shooting overall and 32 percent from 3-point range while Dinwiddie scored 15 points.
Brooklyn jumped out to a 22-13 lead after an 8-0 run before Minnesota closed to within 29-27 at the end of the first quarter. The Nets led throughout the first half and were up 50-44 late in the second quarter before the Wolves closed within 50-49 at the break.
Up by a point midway through the third quarter, the Nets put together a 10-4 run that began with a Dinwiddie 3-pointer. Two Jordan free throws, a Harris transition finish and Garrett Temple’s two free throws had Brooklyn up 75-69 with 2:22 remaining in the quarter.
Leading 75-74, the Nets closed the quarter with a Chandler basket and Temple’s 3-pointer at the buzzer for an 80-74 lead going into the fourth.
A deep-shooting burst from Luwawu-Cabarrot extended Brooklyn’s lead early in the fourth. Three 3-pointers in the first three minutes of the quarter by the reserve swingman had the Nets up 89-80 with 9:15 to go.
After Minnesota scored nine straight points to tie the game, Dinwiddie answered for Brooklyn with seen straight Nets points — a 3-pointer and four free throws — for a 96-91 lead, only to see the Wolves again knot the game at 96 with 3:30 to go.
With the game tied at 96, Dinwiddie lobbed to Jordan for a dunk, and Harris finished off a drive for a 100-96 lead with 2:30 remaining. Dinwiddie then made 1-of-2 free throws before Culver made two for the Wolves, and the Nets led 101-98 with under a minute to go.
Minnesota’s Gorgui Dieng made two free throws with 57.3 seconds left to cut the Brooklyn lead to a point and his 3-pointer with 36.3 seconds to go put the Wolves up 103-101.
Prince drove into the lane and his jumper from just inside the foul line got the roll to even the game with 27.1 seconds left in regulation.